Performance evaluation and lifetime prediction of a segmented photovoltaic-thermoelectric hybrid system

Abstract

Combining the photovoltaic (PV) and thermoelectric (TE) technologies to form a hybrid PV-TE system is considered as a promising way to utilize the unwanted heat accumulated in the solar cell. This paper comprehensively analyzes and optimizes the performance and fatigue failure of a concentrated PV-TE system with the segmented TE model. The results demonstrate that the power output and efficiency of the hybrid PV-TE systems with segmented TE model can be greatly enhanced compared to those of the hybrid PV-TE systems with the uniform TE model. For the solar cell with bigger efficiency correction coefficient, a larger combined heat loss results in a higher power output and efficiency. Conversely, the power output and efficiency decrease with the combined heat loss. The optimized height of TE model corresponding to the highest performance decreases with the height ratio of the upper to lower TE leg. The length of the TE leg has little influence on the optimized height of the TE module. The combined heat loss by radiation and convection can improve the fatigue life of the hybrid system. A balance between the enhancement of fatigue life and decrease in the total efficiency can be obtained by adjusting the solar concentration ratio of the solar cell for different wind velocities.